August 1, 2018
A collection of two of English artist Winterhart's graphic explorations of people dealing with people--and their own issues.The first story follows the six summer weeks Daniel Bagnold spends at home with his mother, Sue, instead of going to Florida to see his distant father (who canceled the visit due to the birth of his daughter with his new, American wife). Sue's father also abandoned her for America, and Sue still quietly struggles with these and other past hurts, particularly a teenage episode with a troubled boy. Daniel is himself a taciturn teenager, mainly interested in heavy metal, video games, and resisting Sue's attempts to get him a nice pair of shoes. Tensions ebb and flow throughout the summer as Daniel wrestles with shyness and ambition and an extroverted best friend--and of course the indignity of having a mother. In the second story, Sam, a failed artist in his late 20s fresh off a nervous breakdown and back in his childhood home, has accepted that earning money from his passions doesn't work. So he takes a mindless job with an odd little man named Keith Nutt, which amounts to riding in Keith's car as the older man visits various office parks--and listening to Keith's stories. They are an odd couple, Sam's aloofness clashing with Keith's demands for conformity--though, through his close proximity and artist's eye, carefully studying the man's roughly textured body and elaborate mannerisms, Sam catches glimpses of hidden truths beneath Keith's bluster. Both stories are quiet affairs where inner struggles dovetail with the challenges of interpersonal dynamics, executed with deep sensitivity and sly humor. The characters can appear stiff, like positioned figurines rather than people, yet the rich detail with which Winterhart renders their faces and fingers, combined with his superb ear for dialogue, breathes indelible life into them.Keenly observed.
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August 20, 2018
In his wry depiction of two awkward young men’s long, lonely summers, Winterhart captures the claustrophobia of being a moody, misfit boy in a monotonous town. This meditative volume collects two short graphic novels originally published in the U.K. In “Days of the Bagnold Summer,” slumping, long-haired teen Daniel mopes around reading horror novels and longing to join a garage metal band, all while shrouded in a dark hoodie that makes him resemble “a big, black, sad kangaroo,” according to his mother, Sue. Any sign of life is a welcome surprise to single-mom Sue, who watches her son transform under her equally lonesome gaze. “You seem in a good mood!” she chirps, after Daniel engages in the rare act of coming out to dinner for her birthday—“No I don’t,” he replies. In “Driving Short Distances,” depressed dreamer Sam takes a job navigating in circles around his hometown with Keith, a friendless and humorless older delivery man. Winterhart’s blue and brown brush strokes depict the richness of mundane minutiae: the carpet-like quality of Keith’s nosehair, the tender wrinkles around Sam’s mother’s eyes. Neither Sam nor Daniel plunge fearlessly into life, but as days stretch into weeks, they slowly take baby-bird steps toward their dormant ambitions. Throughout, Winterhart manages to illustrate the banal without ever becoming boring.
September 15, 2018
This impressive debut volume collects the first two books by British graphic novelist Winterhart. Days of the Bagnold Summer chronicles six weeks in the lives of middle-aged, single mother Sue and her surly metalhead son, Daniel. In a series of six-panel vignettes, the lonely woman and the disaffected teenager experience a series of rifts and disappointments before emerging unscathed and even a bit healed. In Driving Short Distances, Sam, a socially awkward twentysomething at loose ends, takes a job accompanying an odd little man named Keith Nutt as he takes his clipboard to a regular series of destinations in various office parks. It soon becomes apparent that Sam's main duty is to passively listen to his blustery boss' long-winded stories and ill-informed opinions. Winterhart's wispy illustrations deftly capture the delicate vulnerability of his damaged characters. Both works are quiet knockouts: The formal command of the first is masterful, but the emotional expansiveness of the second gives it the decided edge. The one-two punch confirms Winterhart as an exciting and remarkable talent to watch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)